How to stay clean and odorless?

[LadyIsadora]

Perhaps the best advise I have gotten so far in keeping their pen clean is:
to put their water on top of a plastic or metal grate. Metal will rust quickly, but I did not have plastic that I thought suitable. Figure out where you want the water to be, set your water receptacle down, measure & dig around it up to 30 inches out and a foot or two deep. ( I only went about 6 x 12 out and it could be better) Line the bottom with rocks and or sand, some people put a tarp or some such other business in there for easy cleaning,

I personally do not see how putting a tarp down, making it the equivalent of a cesspool, makes this pit easier to clean. I am hoping mine will have enough drainage that it wont be a problem. I spray it down with vinegar to deter anything from breeding down in there, but I guess the ducks would just eat whatever as soon as it tried to come above ground, IDK this is untested for me. but I know myself well enough to know Im not going to dredge it out very dang often, if ever. I keep a spray bottle of vinegar, some salad tongs, three prong rake etc hanging on the chain link of their coop by S hooks This is convenient & clean and should be all I need. I hope. Rambling over LOL

Anyway, I build a frame out of 2x4, added center 2x4 for support, screwed my metal grate to it and set it on top of the hole. Setting the frame in so the surface was even with the ground around it. Their water and food sit right on top of that. The straw from the pen gets on it and has to be cleaned up daily when I clean up the poop. They poop a lot when they eat & drink I have to scrape it down & spray it daily to keep the holes clear & draining. SO FAR it has worked BEAUTIFULLY. They have no mud in their pen.

I should mention here that this is my first time with ducks. They have only been in the pen for just over 4 weeks. And it is early spring. My success/ opinions on this may change with the seasons or size of the flock. Perhaps in the summer it will become an incubator for maggots. Perhaps it will fill up & freeze solid next winter. I do not know. Im hoping the vinegar will prevent that. In any case It is not that hard to lift the frame & dig it out again. For now I am comfortably happy with it.

 

[Celtagoats]

I like mine to be in a run with as much grass as possible, instead of putting down any sort of bedding. They were stinking to high heaven within hours of cleaning up every day, so we ended up ,asking them a much larger run where they could have plenty of grass and bugs to peck at. After that, I haven't haven't really had much of an issue with poop or smell. I wish the same thing world for my Cornish x chickens though. No matter how much space they have, they still choose to all poop in the same corner :/

 

[TLWR]

My first 3 started with their hut on the deck, but they hung out much of the day in the old dog yard, which was pea stone. I just hosed it every day. No smell issues.

Now when they are penned, it is on mostly dirt/clay, but with a ton of pine straw since their pen has pine trees in it and around it. I hose their hut out daily and hose down the pine straw every now and again as well. I've not had an issue with smell.

 

[sukochickens]

All great suggestions! Thank you! LadyIsadora what is ACV?

 

[LadyIsadora]

ACV=Apple Cider Vinegar

A very good thing to have. There is MUCH about this on this forum, and if you google its uses you will have weeks of reading.

 

[sukochickens]

Oh ok thanks!

 

[Amiga]

I have thirteen ducks spending their nights - and about 23 hours a day during the hardest parts of winter - in a section of our walkout basement that I have set up as a pen.

I do daily room service, takes 15 minutes in the nice weather when they are spending most of their time in the outdoor pen, and more like half an hour when they spend most of their time in the night pen / winter shelter.

I used to use straw bedding but the bales were starting to be moldy inside when I bought them, so I switched to pine shavings. I don't like them as much, but the quality is reliable. I use compressed sawdust pellets in the watering station.

Odor is not a problem. What I do:

spot pick manure
fluff the bedding with a cultivator (a kind of rake)
have water in a watering station
put a little bit of Sweet PDZ under the bedding around where there is the most poop

 

[sukochickens]

I have thirteen ducks spending their nights - and about 23 hours a day during the hardest parts of winter - in a section of our walkout basement that I have set up as a pen. I do daily room service, takes 15 minutes in the nice weather when they are spending most of their time in the outdoor pen, and more like half an hour when they spend most of their time in the night pen / winter shelter. I used to use straw bedding but the bales were starting to be moldy inside when I bought them, so I switched to pine shavings. I don't like them as much, but the quality is reliable. I use compressed sawdust pellets in the watering station. Odor is not a problem. What I do: spot pick manure fluff the bedding with a cultivator (a kind of rake) have water in a watering station put a little bit of Sweet PDZ under the bedding around where there is the most poop

Oh I like that idea for the water! What is sweet PDZ?

 

[MamaRudey]

Oh I like that idea for the water! What is sweet PDZ?

Sweet PDZ is an odor helper made for horse stalls. You can find it at feed stores, great stuff. I sprinkle it in my deep litter coop whenever I feel the need.

 

[Rowsdower]

Impossible...when my ducklings hit about 3 weeks old I put them in my basement shower and I was still "hosing" the place down 8-10 times a day.